Mitten Ridge Loop

Ten Skyliners (Lila Wright, Miriam Sterling, Donna Goodman, Daisy Williams, Dolly Yapp, Kwi Johnson,Gordon Bice, Colleen Maktenieks, the author and one other) hiked the Mitten Ridge Loop off Schnebly Hill Road On April 30, 2011. We drove north on Hwy 89A from Cottonwood, turned south on Highway 179 in Sedona, crossed the bridge across Oak Creek and turned left on Schnebly Hill Road. We proceeded 2.6 miles on Schnebly Hill Road before parking alongside the road in Bear Wallow Canyon. Schnebly Hill Road is paved for the first 0.9 miles, but the last 1.7 miles to where we parked is rough, unpaved road. Our parking area was a wide shoulder on the left side of the road. We started our hike by making a short, easy descent into the wash that runs alongside the road, crossing to the other side and joining Munds Wagon Trail leading upstream.

We followed Munds Wagon Trail for about 0.75 miles until it crossed Schnebly Hill Road. At this point we continued on uphill on the road for about 0.2 miles to the Cowpies-Mitten Ridge Trailhead. Note that Cowpies-Mitten Ridge is a descriptive name; I have no official name for this trail.

Following the trail we passed by the Cowpies, really just large, relatively flat rock formations that look rather like giant cow droppings when viewed from the ridge above. Viewed from the trail crossing they appear as just part of an expansive, bare rock outcropping in Bear Wallow Canyon. The below picture is a view looking out over the formation, across Sedona and Verde Valley to the mountains beyond.

The trail, after leaving the Cowpies formations, runs west along the south slope of Mitten Ridge, leading to a prominent gap in the ridge. It was distinct and easy to follow with no steep climbing except for a very short section immediately below the saddle formed by the gap.

When we arrived at the gap we found that it was very windy and immediately donned the jackets we had shed while hiking up Bear Wallow Canyon on the south side of Mitten Ridge. Although it was only about 11 AM we decided to eat our lunch at this spot and moved back to just below the ridge line on the south side for shelter from the wind. There were impressive rock formations on both sides of the gap; looking east along the south side of Mitten Ridge we could see the Merry-Go-Round formation and Munds Wagon Trail leading diagonally up the mountain to the Mogollon Rim. See the photographs presented on the following page.

The two faces (sides) of Mitten Ridge Gap are shown below.

The west face of Mitten Ridge Gap

The east face of Mitten Ridge Gap

The following photograph, taken on a previous hike in January 2009, shows the Merry-Go-Round formation and Munds Wagon Trail snaking up the mountain beyond.

Merry-go-Round formation and Munds Wagon Trail snaking up the 

mountain beyond - January 2010

Many of the group had hiked to the Cowpies and on to Mitten Ridge Gap before (e. g. our January 2009 hike); however most of us had not known that the trail actually continued through the gap and turned west along the north side of the ridge. We now knew that it did and, determined to follow it all the way, donned our packs after lunch and climbed back to the ridge line in the gap, pausing there for the view. Looking to the northwest from the gap, we had a clear view of Oak Creek Canyon and Midgley Bridge below.

Looking down on Midgley Bridge in Oak Creek Canyon

The trail leading west along the north side of Midgley Ridge is not easily discernible. It leaves at the east side of the gap, runs north (perhaps a bit northeast) for a few yards and then turns sharply back to head west along the north side of the ridge. This is illustrated in the below two photographs taken in January 2009.

The trail leaves the gap to the left of the hikers heading north/northeast. 

After a few yards it then turns back and heads west

After leaving the gap and turning west, the trail runs along the side of the 

ridge through the trees shown in the center of this photograph

Once we made the initial descent from the gap, the trail was well defined and basically level as we headed west along the north side of the ridge.

Lila leading the hike west along the Mitten Ridge

Looking back along the trail

We had good views from the trail down into Oak Creek Canyon. Shown below is a photograph looking up the canyon. Lila pointed out that the white dot visible just above and slightly left of center is where Thompson’s ladder Trail starts up the canyon wall on its way to the rim.

Looking down into Oak Creek Canyon from the trail along Mitten Ridge

Kwi, one of the few who had hiked this way previously, told us that we would find a window in a rock formation ahead. We kept looking and finally spotted it just as we were turning back through a gap ridge to return to our cars parked in Bear Wallow Canyon on the other side. As the formation (right) was located a considerable distance away, across a side canyon, and the climb to reach it would have been quite strenuous, we discarded any plans to go there and continued on our way through the gap.

After we crossed back to the south side of the ridge the trail became very faint as it went through an area of bare rock and we lost it, resulting in a precipitous climb down the steep slope to rejoin it below. (Note: We did learn later approximately where the trail runs, and I have included that route on the map included with this report. The route we took is shown separately as a yellow line.)

Hikers making their way carefully down the rocky slope after we lost 

the trail above.

While resting after rejoining the trail below, we observed two women hikers following the actual trail above and decided that we would schedule this hike again, hiking in the opposite direction and following the actual trail all the way.

After our steep descent the rest of the trail was easy and we rejoined Munds Wagon Trail less than 0.2 of a mile from where we were parked.

The hike turned out to be about 5.2 miles in length and the elevation difference was just over 600 feet. Except for the steep climb down the mountainside after we lost the trail, it was an easy hike.

The red track on the included map (below) shows the loop hike. The short green section shows where we got lost and wound up bushwhacking our way down the cliff.